Series 04 Episode 16

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Series 04 Episode 16

Jamie's taken his exam and is waiting for the results. Adam and Jo talk about the meaning of different exam results in the UK.

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Transcript

Adam

Hello and welcome to Episode 16 of Series 4 of LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts. My name is Adam and my colleague Jo will be joining us later to talk about some of the language from the podcast.

Last time we heard Tess and Ravi talking about Sherlock Holmes, a famous British detective. Or perhaps I should say a famous British fictional detective. As Ravi explained, Sherlock Holmes wasn't a real person – he was actually a character in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Zafarbek from Uzbekistan wrote in to say thank you for the information! Zafarbek loves Sherlock Holmes films but didn't know that Sherlock Holmes wasn't a real detective. Don’t worry, Zafarbek, even when Doyle was writing the original stories 120 years ago, people thought he was real then.

Abdulazim Saffaf from Syria says 'I thought he was a real person until I listened to this podcast!' Abdulazim also said that he's just bought a hat like Sherlock's hat and so all his friends call him Sherlock Holmes. You don't see many hats like that these days, Abdulazim – and it's called a 'deerstalker' by the way, because people used to wear them when they were hunting deer.

Ypf1083 is new to the website – welcome! – and says 'I've read most of the books about Sherlock Holmes and I love them. He's one of my favorite characters'. Me, too. And britishlearner from Guinea remembers hearing about Sherlock Holmes for the first time in one of the jokes from the first series of the podcast (Series 1 Episode 2 actually, britishlearner – you've got a good memory!) and also in an episode of Word on the Street, when Ashley tried to solve a crime.

Zara Zieno from Syria isn't very keen on Sherlock Holmes. She once tried to watch it with her brother but had to stop because it was very frightening. But Zara really likes a series called Detective Conan, and a lot of you wrote in to say the same thing – Detective Conan is obviously very popular, even though I've never heard of him!

So thank you to Wuri Koes and Arum Adriani, both from Indonesia, for writing in and explaining a bit about it. As Wuri Koes explains, Detective Conan is a Japanese manga series. It's about a clever student who helps the police solve crimes. His enemies give him a poison that turns him into a child, but he carries on solving crimes secretly and calls himself Conan after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes books. And, as Arum Adriana says, there are some similarities between Sherlock Holmes and Detective Conan and the way they solve their cases, perhaps because the writer, Gosho Aoyama, is a big Holmes fan.

Speaking of other fictional detectives, Laura 1240 from Italy said 'Ever since I was a child I've always loved Agatha Christie and her private Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, but I like Miss Marple very much too. I've read almost all her books, and watched all the movies and TV series based on her characters and I really, really love them all!'

Great comments everyone – please keep writing them. And don't forget about the Elementary Podcast app. Follow the link from the LearnEnglish website or go to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to get it.

And now it's time to catch up with Carolina and her friends. It's coming to the end of the academic year, everyone's busy with exams – and some people have some important decisions to make about their future. Let's see what's happening ...

Carolina – After the exam

Fellow student: Phew. That was difficult.

Carolina: Yes, it was. Did you do question four? The one about South America?

Fellow student: The one about the Atlantic coast? God no. That was really complicated. Why? Did you?

Carolina: Jamie! I know you British talk about the weather all the time – but not now! Why did you want to see me? Tell me now.

Jamie: Well … You remember I told you about that placement that I applied for?

Carolina: Placement? What's that?

Jamie: Like a training position – work experience.

Carolina: You applied for a lot of different things.

Jamie: Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Carolina: And?

Jamie: Well, they've accepted me.

Carolina: Which one? Where?

Jamie: The one I really wanted. The best one.

Carolina: Oh no. Borneo.

Jamie: Yep. Borneo. The orang-utans.

Carolina: You've got the job.

Jamie: Well, I haven't got it yet. I have to wait for my exam results. They say I have to get a 2:1.

Carolina: You'll get a 2:1. You know you will.

Jamie: I hope so. I've got a 2:1 in my continuous assessment. And the exams are going well.

Carolina: So that's good then.

Jamie: It's great … but you know there's a problem.

Carolina: Yes.

Jamie: The band.

Carolina: The band!?

Jamie: The tour in October with The Electrons. I don't know what to do. It's a terrible decision. Stay here and go on tour with the band – that's every guy's dream. Or go to Borneo and work with orang-utans – my dream since I was a kid. I can't do both.

Carolina: And what about me? Do you think I want you to go to Borneo, the other side of the world?

Jamie: It's only for nine months. We can email, we can phone, we can text. Look, I need time to think about this. It's the biggest decision of my life. And I need you to understand that. Please. OK?

Comments

I agree with Jo. I would prefer to take continuous assessment if I am a student. because I think continuous assessment is just good idea for education and I haven't heard about it in my country. I always felt so much stress just before exams every time. and when I finished the exam, I never remember anything about the exams at all. so Does it make sense?

Dear Sir
Thank you for explaning the prepositions 'to' and 'for'
Would you please tell me why we use 'for' in these sentences but not 'to' I have notice this in sentences using part of 'be.' Is that the reason? For eg. She was late for school.
Is this the train for London? But not to school/ not to London
This is also a destination/or some other reason like part of be as mentioned above..
Please let me know.
Thank you
Regards

Dear Sir
I have the difficulty to understand the prepositions 'to' and 'for' the writer has used
in the following two sentences. Would you please explain any rule or reason for this.?
She is leaving for France tomorrow.
They flew to Canada.
Thank you.
Regards

One of the many meanings of 'to' is to indicate a destination. It is used with many verbs of movement, including 'fly'. 'for' can also be used to indicate a destination, though it's used with a smaller range of words. One of these is 'leave', so this sentence means she is going to France.

Hello!
I prefer continuous assesment. That is a process all the time seeing the student in your make and developed. so anything is wrong exist the opportunity making better in this exactly moment. Sorry for all because my Englis is not good. I hope that understand me.
Thanks.

Taking an exam doesn't matter at all for me because I'm old enough (58). My interest is on Conan! I am a Japanese and yet I didn't know the cartoon Conan comes from Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes! What a shame! Thank you for telling me that information. But the cartoon Conan is for children and too childish for me to watch, I'm afraid...

I am prefer a continuous assessment than exam
on exam its not going very well for me even if i have the knowledge to take the test,
and does not show my real knowledge on the specific area.
i mean i do prefer grade for all what i have done on the year.